Support Designer in Slide2: target FoS support design explained for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on Geoengineer.org – News
30 Second Briefing
Rocscience has launched Support Designer in Slide2, allowing engineers to specify a target factor of safety for slope or excavation models and automatically compute required support parameters such as bolt length, spacing, and capacity. The tool works with limit equilibrium analyses, adjusting support patterns to meet user-defined FoS rather than relying on manual trial‑and‑error iterations. This shift to target‑driven design could tighten geotechnical optimisation workflows, particularly for complex reinforced slopes, retaining structures, and underground excavations.
Technical Brief
- Support Designer operates directly on Slide2 models containing existing support types, geometries and stratigraphy.
- It handles multiple support systems concurrently, including rock bolts, soil nails, geosynthetics and structural liners.
- Users can constrain design by maximum bolt length, minimum spacing, or allowable support capacity ranges.
- Existing support layouts can be locked, with optimisation restricted to selected support sets or regions.
- Output includes updated support patterns plus revised critical slip surfaces and governing failure mechanisms.
- Designers can rapidly compare alternative reinforcement strategies by cloning scenarios and re‑running automated support searches.
- Workflow is intended for both slope and excavation geometries, including complex staged construction sequences.
- For portfolios with many Slide2 models, automated support sizing reduces manual iteration time across design options.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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